Season 14

[Vos]

stage 10 TdF ;
2º  Basov
27º  Nyheim ( helper )
Again a more than excellent result of 9-star climber Basov finishing solo as 2º, just one of the favorites was better.
Basov even moved up 2 places in the GC, and he ended up as 11º GC.

[Sjiz]

We finished as 5th this TdF. I am happy with the result but i did not expect to lose the podium in the sprints. Still happy with how the Tour and Suisse went. Beforehand the most difficult races for me and they went ok. It does appear that Captain created a decisive gap. Gaining 1500 points will not be easy, in fact, i think it will be impossible with Hilton and the Vuelta still coming up. I guess the fight will be for second in the division. Hopefully i can get some points back on Vos tomorrow morning. Skogstad will continue riding there.

the BinkBankTour will also be interesting. VanGroningen and Jorgenson swapped teams and will be optimally prepared for the race. I hope to challenge for the podium with the Danish cobbleguy and second of Paris-Roubaix. But first to Spain!

[Rico]

Really happy with the performance of Palmer and his domestiques. 9 really strong stages and a mediocre last one when the victory was almost sure already. Palmer did well to gain time on other GC rivals in the mountains and did a great job to finish in the same group as Pires in the sprint stages.

Good results of Sportlife in the mountain stages (fighting against a superb Miro) and TeamRHB with Skogstad in the GC means this season is not over yet, but this Tour de France is a good step towards ending on top at the end of this season.

[kirin]

Well my 2 major mistakes costed me the Tour, but it wasn't that suited for Piñeiro with the softness of the cobble stages, so it wasn't a bad perfomance at the end. I will take the podium. Also the last sprint stage was really good for Piñeiro, he even missed no time with the much better sprinter Pires.
Now time for Binckbank Tour, where maybe Kahn or Winter can opt to the podium as well

[Vos]

# Great Tour de France victory of Palmer, Rico. 

# Also a great Tour de France of Piñeiro, Kirin !
Finishing with a just 25yo behind 2 amazing GC contenders like Palmer and Pires, in my opinion that is a very good 3º GC podium place.

- - - - - - - - - -
First the for my team important SanSebastian ; important, because I have doubts if my not great BBT selection can score enough points.
And after the BBT ;

Tusveld is joining the fierce GC Vuelta battle versus Hilton ( CaptainOrange ), Loinaz ( TeamRHB ), and many other good GC rivals.
Loinaz is a guess, I'm not entirely sure what Sjiz his Vuelta strategy is.
But I'm sure it will be an interesting Vuelta on many fronts. I'm looking forward to it already.
Let's hope Tusveld does well despite he rides 7 or 6 stages with 99 form.

[Vos]

Clasica San Sebastian ;
28º  Kristóf ( helper )
30º  Myers ( teamcaptain )
Massive tactical failure ! ! !
Teamcaptain Myers and free role Vorre started too slow, while the 3 helpers were in the front peleton of s1, s2 and s3.
Vorre and even Myers could not return, and the teamcaptain was the whole race isolated and too far behind.

A missed opportunity to score many points with the especially for this race prepared Myers.
Most likely he could have finished top 10 with a good start.
A big mistake, with maybe big consequences.
Wanted ; new manager for SPORTLIFE ! Because the current manager sucks !

Just a dissapointing total of 60 points, and probably this is the worst San Sebastian ever of my team.
1A leader CaptainOrange scored 275 points and rival TeamRHB scored 225 points.
This is not good at all. And with the upcoming BBT, the current nr 2 position is in jeopardy. Because the difference is just 236 points now.


   selection SPORTLIFE

Perhaps a new team shirt will help me not to make big mistakes.
This supercool, amazing team shirt is created by Franky, muchas gracias !

Let's hope this not strong BBT selection can score enough points, despite their fear for ex-SPORTLIFE cyclist Jørgensen ( now TeamRHB ).
This selection is not even complete, what gives climber Nyheim an opportunity to gain very needed experience.

021 Szarvas ( 32 ), cobble
022 VanGroningen ( 32 ), cobble-sprint
023 Majoros ( 32 ), sprint
024 Lebrun ( 29 ), sprint
025 Nyheim ( 25 ), experience

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

A strange San Sebastian with a lot of attacks. Skogstad lost his domestiques very quickly. Luckily he was able to ride good race. I thought he could do a podium if i was lucky. Well, I was not but 6th is also good. Valuable points and the gap with vos is a little smaller now.

Tonight we will ride for jorgenson. I am very curious to see where he can finish. In my mind he has already won the GC and 2 stages. Lets hope this becomes reality :p.

[Vos]

The BinckBank Tour favorites in the Prediction Race :

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Yannick Pierre ( 32, CobbleCrushers )
⭐⭐⭐  Dré Degrande ( 32, Cabrasverdes )
⭐  Spodris Martisons ( 24, Mlb )
⭐  Toms Brikmanis ( 26, BlackHole )
⭐  Kyril VandenBergh ( 32, Cabrasverdes )

For what it is worth, for example in my opinion VandenBergh is not suited for this BBT.
Although also to me ; Pierre is thé top favorite.
But not mentioned are possible top GC contenders like Anders Jørgensen ( 32, TeamRHB ), Bram Travin ( 32, Thorboassonarvesen ),
and there are probably many more flat-cobble-sprinters with a little hill-stat as extra, who might ride a top GC in this specific BinckBank Tour.

[Sjiz]

I have no idea if it went well. We will see in the next few stages :p
Edit: compared to the cobble favourites tomorrow it was a good stage and i took more than 1:30 on many of them.

[Vos]

Stage winner Yannick Pierre was active in the Tour de France,
so if he has cobble TC bonus then it is not active anymore in stage 5.

What is an advantage to the GC contenders with TC bonus in all 5 stages.
Among them ( hopefully ) Szarvas, who finished 83º on 2:19", what is pretty good with his low hills GV.
Szarvas is not a top GC contender, for example already 0:50" behind Jørgensen ( of rival TeamRHB ), who is also better in all upcoming stages.
But Szarvas needs to score some GC points, so that the expected gap towards TeamRHB is as small as possible after this BBT.

[Sjiz]

A good race: Jorgenson took the win. Very happy with it. My first flat cobble win this version. The time gaps were small which doesnt bode well for the chances on the win. Only a handful seconds gained on Pierre. Still, we are up to 16th on the GC. Thats already a good start.

[Vos]

Great victory with not-favorite Jørgensen, very well done Sjiz ! 
Just one thing in your amazing stage 2 BBT is not great at all ; you make the battle for the silver 1A cup way too exciting ! 

stage 2 BBT ;
7º  Szarvas  on 0:00"
A good result, and also good that he finished in the break away group of 8.

It seems a few extra GC points will be difficult ( and maybe too difficult ) ; at the moment 45º GC on 2:11"
This is not promising looking at the small time differences of stage 2, and probably Szarvas cannot finish on 0:00" in sprint stage 4.

[Sjiz]

A fine 3rd place. Unfortunately Lezhnev couldnt follow in S1 and that cost me the victory. Jorgenson had to ride the entire race on his own. Still a good day and a nice jump in the GC. He is now 6th. Lets see how the sprint goes and after we will try our best in the last cobble stage.

the only downside to this race are the 3 riders from Vos in the top 10

[Vos]

the only downside to this race are the 3 riders from Vos in the top 10

TeamRHB is hard to beat, I guess I have to use all possible fox-tricks.^^

stage 3 BBT ;
8º  VanGroningen ( free role )
9º  Szarvas ( teamcaptain )
10º  Majoros ( free role )

A good amount of points in a bit of odd tactics, but I had to try because these 3 are very different in stats.
I had no faith in them riding good together. And probably helper Lebrun showed this was a good decision,
because he suddenly dropped in s3 despite he accelerated compared to his teamcaptain ( s2 = +1, and s3 = +2 ).
And in case that happened, Lebrun had a back up tactic to return in s4, unfortunately he could not make the jump.

But very satisfied with this stage 3 to Rotterdam. 
And important ; Szarvas finished as last of the break away group on 0:00"
He enters the top 20 and now 18ºGC on 1:48" behind GC leader Pierre.
However, it is all very close together in the battle for some GC points, and Szarvas fears the upcoming sprint stage.

[Sjiz]

Zars was the best domestique and Jorgenson was able to just hold on to the peloton. A good stage in which we were able to gain some time and positions. It will be very close and an interesting battle tonight. I have no idea what is possible. Jorgenson will just have to ride his best race and then we will see the results once the dust from the cobbles settles.